As we all know, a person’s Social Security number is the key to making that person a victim of identity theft. Armed with that number, an identity thief can access a person’s credit, file a phony income tax return in the name of the victim and, in general make life miserable for the person whose Social Security number has been compromised. Where at one time it was commonplace for states to use a person’s Social Security number as the number on a person’s driver’s license, it is now illegal for states to do so. The Department of Defense, the Veteran’s Administration and numerous other private and governmental entities no longer use the Social Security number as an identifying number in order to reduce identity theft. However, for more than ten years, the Department of Health and Human Services, the government agency that supervises Medicare, the governmental health insurance program in which 50 million Americans are enrolled, refused to heed the advice of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the White House Office of Management and Budget and the Inspector General of Social Security to change the identifying number prominently displayed on a person’s Medicare card from the person’s Social Security number to a safer identifying number. But now, a new federal law was passed that requires Medicare to start issuing cards with a randomly generated Medicare beneficiary identifier rather than the person’s Social Security number, however, Medicare does not have to start doing so for four years. They have an additional four years to replace the cards of current beneficiaries with new cards with the new identifying numbers. When fully implemented, this law will significantly reduce the vulnerability of Medicare recipients to identity theft.
TIPS
This legislation is a good step from many perspectives. It was passed with bipartisan support and does show that Republicans and Democrats can work together. There is much that can be done to protect us from scams and identity theft that should be able to be done with bipartisan support and hopefully, this law is just the first of many that will help provide greater security to Americans from scams and identity theft. However, people who are present Medicare recipients with cards that will for years still contain their Social Security numbers should take greater precautions to protect these cards from being used by identity thieves. One of the primary things to do is to not carry the card in their wallets or purses unless they absolutely need to bring it with them to a medical appointment. Additionally, they should take precautions to make sure that documentation that carries their Social Security or Medicare number is properly secured and away from the eyes of caregivers or others who might seek out this information for purposes of identity theft. Finally, when disposing of documents that contain their Social Security number, they should cross shred the documents to prevent dumpster diving identity thieves from getting this information.